


Day 1: Smoking

by GemmaRose



Series: Week of Corazón [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Clumsiness, F/M, First Impressions, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 12:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7439818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rocinante just wanted Bellemere to think he was cool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 1: Smoking

Rocinante leaned against the wall, and fiddled with the small white stick between his fingers. Sengoku had always told him not to accept when older Marines offered him a smoke, even lectured him once or twice about why smoking was bad and all the myriad ways it destroyed a person’s body. But Sengoku wasn’t here. Sengoku was all the way off in North Blue, while he was on a training base in East. One of his fellow trainees had been more than happy to give him a cigarette in exchange for an extra mess hall cookie, and now he had precisely one chance to look cool in front of the pretty pink-haired girl half his squad had a crush on.

The crucial flaw in his plan, which he was now realizing, was that he had no way to light his cigarette. Well, he could just ask Bellemere when she showed up. She tended to sneak off around this side of the building for a smoke around this time of day, and if she smoked then she definitely had a lighter or matches or something. She was bound to show up, too. It had only stopped raining half an hour ago, and the clouds had cleared out to leave absolutely perfect weather behind, even if the ground was wet and muddy.

“First time smoking?”

Rocinante startled, and almost dropped his cigarette. Bellemere had hers balanced in her mouth, smiling easily with a lighter in hand. “That obvious?” he asked sheepishly, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

“A bit.” Bellemere chuckled, lighting her cigarette and inhaling deeply. She exhaled a stream of smoke, and offered her lighter to Rocinante. “Name’s Bellemere.”

“Rocinante.” he said, thankfully not fumbling the lighter into the dirt. It took a few tries to get the thing to spark, and when it did he managed to ignite the end of his cigarette easily enough. “Thanks for the light.” he reached out to hand Bellemere her lighter back, shifting his weight to his left leg as he did so.

The ground under his left heel, unfortunately, was muddy and slick. He pitched sideways with a yelp, and only just managed to twist and catch himself on his hands and knees. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any mud splattering on his face. He cracked an eye open, and immediately regretted having attempted to look cool.

“I’m so sorry.” he blurted, trying to scramble to his feet. All he succeeded in doing, however, was tangling his legs with Bellemere’s and falling down on top of her again. Except this time he also dropped his cigarette, which quickly ignited both their shirts.

“Fuck!” Bellemere yelled, shoving him away and rolling over. Rocinante batted at his burning uniform for a few seconds before it occurred to him to yank the fabric over his head and fling it away to smother in the muddy yard. He was breathing hard, as was Bellemere when she sat up, and Rocinante winced at the sight of her totally covered in mud.

“Sorry.” he said sheepishly, reaching up to rub at his hair. His squad would never let him live this down. “I’m kinda clumsy.”

Bellemere looked at him with wide eyes for a second, then threw her head back and began to laugh. “Kinda?” she asked as she leaned forwards, one arm covering the scorched part of her shirt and the other hand sunk into the wet grass and mud. “You set yourself on fire!”

She was still laughing, so Rocinante smiled and lowered his hand. Oh, shit, he’d probably left mud in his hair hadn’t he. Whatever, he’d need to shower after this anyways. “Not my first time with that.”

“Even your hair?” Bellemere asked, inclining her head towards him. Rocinante frowned and reached up, and oh gods that warm spot on his head was his hair _on fire_! He yelped, and swatted at the flames frantically with his muddy hands. Bellemere laughed some more as she stood up, and when his hair was finally extinguished she offered a hand to help him to his feet. He let her pull him up, and thankfully his feet actually stayed under him this time.

“Sorry.” he said again, attempting a smile.

“Tell you what, Roci.” Bellemere grinned, crossing her arms. “Buy me a new pack of cigs, and we’ll call it even.”

Rocinante smiled back, and nodded his head once. He had to buy himself a pack anyways, if he wanted a reason to keep hanging out with Bellemere.


End file.
